God On The Brain

Re: Re: Re: God On The Brain

MaskedMentalist said:
I'm curious as to why you think he's a retard?

Because he disagrees with Dawkins. Considering Dawkin's brilliance, one might even be forgiven for suspecting a touch of resentful envy.
 
synaesthesia said:
PLEASE people, nobody is denying that people have mystical experiences. We materialists believe that we have objective access to the mind. Accordingly we can - and have - established the reality of such experiences.

What we do deny is that the claims about them are even remotely plausible.

What claims are implausible might I ask? I would just argue that these experiences are simply what they appear to be. If I directly experience something I need good reasons to suppose it is an hallucination. Can you provide any reasons?
 
synaesthesia said:
PLEASE people, nobody is denying that people have mystical experiences. We materialists believe that we have objective access to the mind. Accordingly we can - and have - established the reality of such experiences.

What we do deny is that the claims about them are even remotely plausible. This is just a manifestation of man's tendency to attribute remarkable experiences to some bizarre metaphysical anomaly rather than admit that nature itself is every bit as impressive and unfathomable as 'bona fide' mystical experiences.

Again, this is built upon the materialists "certainty" that certain things are impossible, owing to the fact that they are impossible if materialism is true. Your post is dripping with this dogma. You speak with absolute certainty of your own position. Yet even you have an existential limit - it would be possible for you to experience something so 'paranormal' that you could not rationalise it. You simply do not believe such things happen. In truth, all you can say is that they have never happened to you.
 
Lucifuge Rofocale said:


I do remember now. You jumped to the discussion in the middle, missing some of the posts. My point was that mistycs were also estimulated and declared to have had the exact same experience, so for THEM their SUBJETIVE experiences, were the same, via god or via TMS.

Now, if you remember the thread could you please tell me wich was:(?

It was 'PWQs'.

And personally there was no way that 'stimulating my brain' could repeat much of what happened to me, since what happened to me was permament. It consisted of actual events that actually occurred. I am speaking of things like Jungian "synchronicities" but one level up from this - synchronicities so severe that they probably deserve a new name, and phenomena suggesting alterations to the timeline I was a part of. What I am suggesting is beyond 'weird'. I realise that the materialists among us will find this *totally impossible* to believe. But that doesn't actually mean they are *totally impossible*. And it doesn't mean you could create it by poking an electrode in my brain. You would have to erase part of my memory and rewrite it.
 
UndercoverElephant said:


It was 'PWQs'.

And personally there was no way that 'stimulating my brain' could repeat much of what happened to me, since what happened to me was permament. It consisted of actual events that actually occurred. I am speaking of things like Jungian "synchronicities" but one level up from this - synchronicities so severe that they probably deserve a new name, and phenomena suggesting alterations to the timeline I was a part of. What I am suggesting is beyond 'weird'. I realise that the materialists among us will find this *totally impossible* to believe. But that doesn't actually mean they are *totally impossible*. And it doesn't mean you could create it by poking an electrode in my brain. You would have to erase part of my memory and rewrite it.

Hey stop UcE.

We are talking now about "synchronicities". Those are testable and objetive experiences, and by definition capable of third person testing! So,can we apply the scientific method to study thm?

And BTW, given your statement: "there was no way that 'stimulating my brain' could repeat much of what happened to me", who is now the one that refuses to see evidence, based in his metaphysical beliefs?
 
Re: Re: Re: God On The Brain

MaskedMentalist said:
Pity that total retard Dawkins in going to be in it though. Oh well.
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I'm curious as to why you think he's a retard?

Well he's as thick as f*ck. Have you seen his various arguments which are supposed to demonstrate the unlikehood of a "God". The guy is an absolute moron.

This was what I wrote in this forum a few weeks ago regarding an essay of Dawkins. Unfortunately I can't provide a link to his essay because it's no longer there. No doubt it was removed due to my devastating critique ;)
I paste below:

Well the first 2 paragraphs constitute no evidence against the notion of a "God" whatsoever. In the third paragraph he makes an unsubstantiated assertion. Namely where he says:

We now know that the order and apparent purposefulness of the living world has come about through an entirely different process, a process that works without the need for any designer . .


I'll read on to see if he justifies it . . .

Ok, the 4th paragraph neither gives any justification for his statement, neither does it say anything which would constitute any evidence against a "God".

Ditto for the fifth paragraph.

Ditto for the sixth paragraph.

In the seventh paragraph he says:


We can safely conclude that living bodies are billions of times too complicated - too statistically improbable - to have come into being by sheer chance.


My understanding is that evolution operating through the physical laws of nature do not make this improbable. Of course the whole notion of probability only make sense within the context of the physical laws of nature. It would be meaningless to declare for example that it is improbable that the Universe could simply acausally spring into being from absolutely nothing at all (nothing in its absolute sense, no space-time continuum or anything).

Interestingly in the rest of the 7th paragraphy he directly contradicts what he said in the very first sentence of the 7th paragraph and agrees with me.

Anyway, nothing has been said so far which could be construed as constituting any evidence against a "God" whatsoever. But let's look at the eighth paragraph.

Nope, still no arguments which could be construed to have demonstrated the unlikelihood of a "God". He simply makes the point that the eye is incredibly unlikely to suddenly spring into being fully formed within the context of evolution operating according to the physical laws of nature. I really am unable to see the remote relevance of anything he has said so far concerning the question of the existence of a "God". Let's look at the 9th paragraph to see if things improve.

Well I've just read through paragraphs 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 and there is nothing in there so far which could be construed to demonstrate the unlikelihood of a "God". All he is doing is talking about evolution! :eek:

In paragraph 14 he says:


Evolution, then, is theoretically capable of doing the job that, once upon a time, seemed to be the prerogative of God.


On no! Not the stupid crass conceptualisation opf "god" represented by the "God of the gaps"! Does any intelligent theist believe thus? Conversely are any atheists capable of entertaining any notion of a "God" which is not represented by a "God of the gaps"?? Well Dawkins is supposed to be arguing for the very low probability of a "God" so I presume he won't merely content himself with dreaming up the most crass concept of "God" imaginable and argue against that. So I read on in hope . . .

Oh God! Now he's starting talking about creationism! Who the hell is interested in creationism??

Come on Dawkins! Where are your arguments that the probability ofr a "god" is unlikely??? :rolleyes:

Ok, he says in the 4th paragraph from the end:

The Argument from Design, then, has been destroyed as a reason for believing in a God.


The guy is a complete idiot. Nothing he has said remotely implies anything against the argument from design. All he has done is argue that given the way the world is changing according to the physical laws of nature, the present state of the world is to be expected. But this is wholly irrelevant to whether the world/Universe is wholly contrived! It is the fact that we do not find ourselves subsisting in a bodiless state experiencing a stream of random sensations, the fact that change in the Universe is governed by rules written in the language of mathematics which could be construed as being suggestive of argument from design.

He says near the end:


There is a temptation to argue that, although God may not be needed to explain the evolution of complex order once the universe, with its fundamental laws of physics, had begun, we do need a God to explain the origin of all things.


Not at all. There is no need for an explanation for the Universe. I have no problem with it simply acausally springing into being.

This idea doesn't leave God with very much to do: just set off the big bang, then sit back and wait for everything to happen.


Indeed. Now why don't you defend your thesis that a "God" is unlikely? I am not interested in you attacking a "God of the gaps", nor am I interested in your attacks on deism.


The physical chemist Peter Atkins, in his beautifully written book The Creation, postulates a lazy God who strove to do as little as possible in order to initiate everything. Atkins explains how each step in the history of the universe followed, by simple physical law, from its predecessor. He thus pares down the amount of work that the lazy creator would need to do and eventually concludes that he would in fact have needed to do nothing at all!


Not so beatifully written if this paragraph is a typical example. Like you he is attacking the strawman "God of the gaps" conceptualisation of "God". One is not surprised to hear this dribbling from the lips of Peter Atkins. The guy is as moronic as you are.

Ok, as I suspected before reading the essay, Dawkins has said nothing whatsoever to justify his originnal contention.

Why am I not surprised? :rolleyes:
 
Lucifuge Rofocale said:
Hey stop UcE.

We are talking now about "synchronicities".

This was the form of paranormal activity that I have found most prevalent. However, there are degrees of 'synchronicity', ranging from the curious co-incidence to the (materialistically) totally implausible 'reality engineering' - and by this I mean something like you looking out the window and seeing the words "Hi Lucifuge" written in the clouds immediately after wishing for a 'sign'. (yeah, I know, impossible.....)

Those are testable and objetive experiences, and by definition capable of third person testing! So,can we apply the scientific method to study thm?

Not really. For a start they are not repeatable to order. It would be like trying to find an intermittent software bug which only chooses to manifest when the engineer isn't there. Secondly, it is often the case that only the person experiencing the synchronicity is capable of appreciating the relevance, because the synchronicity depends on other subjective information not verifiable by a third party. This doesn't make it any less relevant, just less testable. Thirdly, if I am speaking about perturbations to the timeline they may also be untestable since it is impossible to go back and verify the state of the initial 'unperturbed' timeline. These phenomena, like so many paranormal happenings, occur in such a way as to be untouchable by the scientific method. Trying to apply science to them is a bit like trying to apply science to the evaluation of the musical value of a composition. One might try to do this, but in doing so one is likely to just destroy the thing you are trying to grasp.

And BTW, given your statement: "there was no way that 'stimulating my brain' could repeat much of what happened to me", who is now the one that refuses to see evidence, based in his metaphysical beliefs?

It is based on things which actually happened to me, Luci. Your position is based upon things you think are theoretically impossible and have never experienced. Mine is based upon things which have actually happened to me.
 
UcE.

I forgot that you will never allow your theory to be testable. I'm sure you believe that it is its true nature, but as soon as the slightest probability of external testing appears, you run to cover your basis.

Even in the original argument ( the TMS induced god experience) when we had the mystics testimonies about the experience, comparing it to the non induced experience, you deny the mystic testimony!.

Maybe, just maybe, you might want to check again your beliefs.
 
Lucifuge Rofocale said:


It is my pet topic. Can anyone post a comment about the show once presented?

Thanks

Would a transcript be feasible? Where would we stand on copyright?

Sou
 
Luci :

I forgot that you will never allow your theory to be testable. I'm sure you believe that it is its true nature, but as soon as the slightest probability of external testing appears, you run to cover your basis.

That is the nature of the phenomena. I cannot help that. That is the way it is. Can you imagine what it would be like if God existed and it's presence could be scientifically verified? Would you want to live in such a world? A world where faith and subjective verification had been replaced by a scientific theory of God? I would not want to live in such a world.

Even in the original argument ( the TMS induced god experience) when we had the mystics testimonies about the experience, comparing it to the non induced experience, you deny the mystic testimony!.

Maybe, just maybe, you might want to check again your beliefs.

I cannot go back and rewrite my own personal history. I know what happened to me. It is very much like having had some aliens round for tea. I know you can't believe me. I know why you can't believe me. I don't even want you to "believe" me. But it is no use you telling me to "check my beliefs". If aliens came to tea, then aliens came to tea.

Aliens didn't come to visit me, but certain things happened which were just as paranormal, if not more so.
 
Lucifuge Rofocale said:
UcE.

I forgot that you will never allow your theory to be testable.

So true, as you will never know what a qualia *I* perceive as experiential is like.

Iff you ever have a mystical adventure I invite you to test that. You have a problem in that how would you even recognize such a mystical experience?

Matter makes consciousness. There. Stay happy. ;)
 
UndercoverElephant said:

That is the nature of the phenomena. I cannot help that. That is the way it is. Can you imagine what it would be like if God existed and it's presence could be scientifically verified? Would you want to live in such a world? A world where faith and subjective verification had been replaced by a scientific theory of God? I would not want to live in such a world.


By any chance, have any other people -that you know- experienced the same kind of synchronicities?

Do you endorse all the paranormal phenomena? or do you think that some of them may be fake or misrepresentations?

Q-S
 
UndercoverElephant said:
Again, this is built upon the materialists "certainty" that certain things are impossible, owing to the fact that they are impossible if materialism is true. Your post is dripping with this dogma. You speak with absolute certainty of your own position. Yet even you have an existential limit - it would be possible for you to experience something so 'paranormal' that you could not rationalise it. You simply do not believe such things happen. In truth, all you can say is that they have never happened to you.

In point of fact I am very confident that claims of supernatural knowledge are invariably deeply flawed. Their belief is very far from justified - it shares the same sorts of flawed rationale as most all superstition. I believe that their belief is also false because it invokes principles which have no independent justification.

Secondly, how do you know I have never had a 'mystical' experience? Because I don't currently agree they are preturnatural in origin? (I did once think that) Because I think that they are within the domain of scientific study? (I use to dismiss that possibility)
 
Q-Source said:
By any chance, have any other people -that you know- experienced the same kind of synchronicities?

I know a one or two who accept the existence of synchronicities, but not to the degree that I have experienced them. I have only met one or two individuals who would describe similar sort of happenings to those I have described, and both of them are deeply into mystical philosophy, and the reason I know them as well as I do was because of this.

Do you endorse all the paranormal phenomena? or do you think that some of them may be fake or misrepresentations?

No, I don't. Exploring the world of such phenomena is like walking through a bog. Be very careful or you will disappear down a hole. I would say that many of the phenomena reported by people did actually happen to them, but that the explanations are much more complex than either the experiencer or the skeptics believe. The skeptics simply refuse to believe any of these phenomena are real. The believers just accept them - they see aliens and believe that there are aliens. My position would be that some of the people who see aliens really do see aliens but that the explanation as to why they see aliens are not so straightforward as simply that aliens have visited earth. In other cases it is straightforward fraud in order to gain control or relieve the gullible of their money. In other cases still it is the result of psychological problems and the need to believe.

There is plenty of bathwater. This does not mean there is no baby.
 
synaesthesia said:


In point of fact I am very confident that claims of supernatural knowledge are invariably deeply flawed.


That is your belief. It was my belief also when I was a materialist. My certainty, in fact.

Their belief is very far from justified because it is motivated by traditional superstion more than any cogent rationale.

You think that applies to me? :eek:

You think I went from science & skepticism moderator at the secweb to paranormalist because of traditional superstition? :eek:

You don't think it had anything to do with the thousands of posts I made on the subjects of ontology and mathematics?

I believe that their belief is also false because it invokes principles which have no independent justification.

So you are certain these phenomena are false because they do not happen to lend themselves to independent verification....ah...I remember now....you were the person who said qualia don't exist.... ;)

Secondly, how do you know I have never had a 'mystical' experience?

Because you would be making very different posts.
 
UndercoverElephant said:
And personally there was no way that 'stimulating my brain' could repeat much of what happened to me, since what happened to me was permament. It consisted of actual events that actually occurred... And it doesn't mean you could create it by poking an electrode in my brain. You would have to erase part of my memory and rewrite it.

Isn't it interesting that those who embrace wild metaphysical speculation so often grossly underestimate the brain's role in our mental life? Yes, you can create memories by merely poking electrodes in your brain or putting drugs in it or any number of other merely physical interventions.

Indeed, there is no sort of change within our minds that is not physical. If the brain does not change, the mind does not.

Stimulating the brain with magnetic fields and electric probes is still very primitive. It does not replicate the context as UE correctly points out, of religious experience. The troubles, ideologies, delusions and hopes of individuals who have mystical experiences are undoubtedly an important aspects of such experiences.

However, UE's contention that powerful, fundamentally life-changing experiences cannot be magnetically, chemically or electrically induced is quite erronious. It IS in fact mere 'stimulations' of the brain that DO change peoples lives. I have taken drugs that have permanantly altered my understanding of myself. I have seen things, read books that have inalterably changed the course of my life.

These are mere stimulations. If one were to study them, they would find nothing other than chemicals and photons coursing about through the fabric of space and time. There is no supervenient magic to the ink printed within the pages of a science text.

But here I am, changed forever, powerfully, by merely physical influence.
 
UcE and Hammegk

My point is that an experiment which uses mystics to compare their mystic experiences with TMS induced experiences can overcome your objections.
 
Syn :

However, UE's contention that powerful, fundamentally life-changing experiences cannot be magnetically, chemically or electrically induced is quite erronious.

I did not say that. I spoke merely of my own experiences.

It IS in fact mere 'stimulations' of the brain that DO change peoples lives. I have taken drugs that have permanantly altered my understanding of myself. I have seen things, read books that have inalterably changed the course of my life.

Of course. Me too. I've taken every hallucinogen you could care to name. However, the experiences I have been speaking of in this thread were not like that. I specifically stated that these experiences were so powerful that it was impossible for me to rationalise them. I repeat : even YOU have an existential limit as to what can be rationalised, you just do not believe it is possible for that limit to be breached.

Luci

My point is that an experiment which uses mystics to compare their mystic experiences with TMS induced experiences can overcome your objections.

Possibly in some cases. But then I do not know what these people are experiencing. I can only speak for myself.
 
Soubrette said:


Would a transcript be feasible? Where would we stand on copyright?

Sou
Check the Horizon website after the show. They usually have transcripts there.

Liam
 

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